at.tension festival

at.tension festival is a biennial, interdisciplinary theatre festival, curated, organised and realized by actors from Kulturkosmos Müritz e.V. and its network of supporters.

The expansive, approximately 100-hectare Kulturkosmos site in Lärz is a unique location and extraordinary stage for a theatre festival, with its former aeroplane hangars and a landing strip, various circus tents, and different open and parking spaces. It also has a large campsite with a lake suitable for swimming.

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SUMMARY of at.tension festival 2017

Dear at.tension#7 festivalgoers,we're writing to sum up the festival a bit, say some thank yous, and bathe in our memories so we can pretend, at least for a little while, that at.tension #7 is not really all over. So, come on, let us sit back and wonder at all we saw once more!

A lot of the feedback we got emphasised that this time we successfully managed a good mix of the large and the small, the far and the near; food for thought and feasts for the eyes, speech and music, and the more physical and more expressive arts. Those are the kinds of compliments that we can accept very happily! To provide the best possible setting for our varied programme, we tried long and hard to see, think about and use the KulturKosmos site in new ways, and so we were delighted that the concept was received so well this time around.

Since the earliest days of the festival, we've wanted to go beyond just providing art for consumption and so we were really pleased to hear from many of you that the seventh edition of the festival also provided you with lots of inspiration and a welcomed place to recharge your soul away from the routine of everyday life, which inevitably caught up again soon afterwards.

As we saw it, the entry and stamp system for performances with a limited audience worked well. What we didn't like so much was the "elbows out" behaviour that we saw from some festivalgoers who ignored the very few rules that we have set out regarding queues. That was often very frustrating, and was really unpleasant for both the festivalgoers and the crew.

It's strangely flattering that our audience is so keen to see so much theatre. It really puts a lot of wind in our sails for the next festival. But at the same time, given how much at.tension has grown, it's important to recognize that it's just no longer possible to see everything and worries about not seeing enough theatre are just not okay. Nevertheless, we'll continue working to improve the queuing and entry system.

And by the way, it's still the case that almost all of the work is done voluntarily by many, many helpers and supporters. We're really grateful for this, as without this kind of commitment we could never put on the festival in such a professional, well organized and creative way. We therefore want to extend our warmest thanks again to all those that pitched in! We're particularly thankful to the many helping hands in the kitchen, those who helped out with the compost toilets and sanitation, the bin crew and all those people who worked day and night on the stages and in other places to make the festival possible in the first place. Without you, there's no way we would be so excited about the eighth edition of the festival!

Finally we want to thank everyone who came and took part in at.tension#7 and made those few days so unforgettable. We saw pretty much nothing but wonderful, cheery, happy faces the whole time, enjoying the weather and seeing a festival of the highest quality. And the whole site looked much cleaner than in previous years. The next two years will definitely feel very long and that means we'll be looking forward to seeing you all even more next time around!